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MP3 Jukebox That Rox
One of the really cool things I saw at Comdex was a very cool MP3 Jukebox that Y2Brand was showing. The system allows for sharing throughout a network, but the other cool feature is that if you assign your box an IP, it shares with all other boxes that have IPs - kinda of a hardware Napster type thing. Expected ship date is 1/15/00 - click below to get some more details.
Press Release from Y2MP#
Y2Brand announces they are accepting pre orders for Y2MP3, The Worlds first MP3 Community JukeBoX Server.
- The Y2MP3 JukeBoX MP3 server is
a turnkey solution for groups that want to share their favorite music. Y2MP3
JukeBoX allows listeners to add their favorite music via a web page interface
served from the Y2MP3 system. The web interface extends the system to allow
songs to be added to a que, display latest additions to the database, or see
the top 10 requested songs. Everything is administrated from a browser over
the LAN.
- Sharing is a key feature of Y2MP3.
For systems that have their own IP address, users will be able to turn on
JukeBoX Sharing. Jukeboxes that have sharing enabled will be able to download
music from all other Y2MP3 systems online, much like Napster or Mp3 Fury.
- Users with administration privileges
can add and remove songs from the database, stop the current songs playback,
and change volume via web page. Y2MP3 stores an amazing 100 CDs worth of music
(average based on mp3s encoded 128 kbps, 44 kHz), all in a system that
weighs only four pounds. An optional 10 GB second hard drive adds an additional
166 hours of playback for a nonstop weeks worth of music.
- Setting up Y2MP3 is a snap, simply
plug audio out from Y2MP3 into a stereo or PA system, and plug a network cable
into your LAN.
- For areas larger than an office,
an optional low power FM transmitter turns Y2MP3 into a radio station! This
"Internet radio station" turns the current model inside out, instead of just
playing commercial radio stations on the Internet, now the Internet and the
Y2MP3 server becomes an automated radio station with studio, record player,
and interactive talk show host applications built in and automated. Users
on the Internet can gather the content from people around the world, and then
post it to the local radio server which then rebroadcasts that server content
via radio to those people that are not connected to the Internet but do have
radios.
- The Y2MP3 JukeBoX system is designed
to be small and portable yet provide superior quality. It is also designed
to be very easy to install and operate. With options the Y2MP3 JukeBoX gets
mobile - take it with you on the road.
Y2MP3 is Powered by Linux, Apache, & MySQL
Hardware: Base MP3 JukeboX (AMD K-6 266 MHz CPU, 32 MB RAM, 4.3 GB Hard Disk, Full Duplex Audio, Internal Speakers) AC Power Supply (battery option for UPS) PCMCIA Network Adapter
Options Include: NiMH Battery - Car adapter Removable 2nd 2.5" IDE hard drive up to 10GB (Provides an extra 166 hours of playback) FM transmitter Keyboard / mouse / video display Carrying case
Expected shipping date is 1-15-00
I looked at it the other week and I didn't really like the client very much. Had a quick look at the protocol used and it seems simple enough so I was thinking about writing a GNOME client for it. It's hard to do GNOME stuff on a VT320 terminal though, but perhaps someone else is working on this already (I hope so)?
I know Napster will try suing them, since they claim a patent on this kind of stuff. Personally I think it's another "obvious" application of technology.. but eh, IANABSL (I am not a blood- sucking lawyer)
I just want a cd player that plays cds, mp3 cds and picks up radio stations :) Anyone know of any?
okay, this would be cool for many reasons, but why wouldn't you just drop a 10G drive into your current linux box, mount it as /home/mp3 (or whereever), share it and be done with it?
i DO however like the FM transmitter feature.
der dee der.
I am running a similar set up. I have a computer that sits here and does exactly what that computer does. It really doesn't take that much to do what that computer does. Anyone that pays any more than $200 or $300 (USD) for that thing is crazy. It does have a nice feature being like Napster and being able to "share" files with other boxes. But then, I am doing that now too. Just run Napster in that directory, or run an FTP server into your mp3 directory. It's a nice set up. I like it a lot. It saves my main computer system a lot of disk space.. Then that web interface is kind of neat, but personally it would annoy me more than it would be a help to me. You could easily write a program similar to what they are describing that can keep a playlist, search songs, tell top 10 songs, updates playlaylist so a song that somone wants to hear is played before a song taht no one wants to hear.
But for thoes people who don't want to find the time to set up a file server, FTP.. etc. I guess it would be a good thing. And probably not somthing most of the Slashdot crowd would jump all over. But it is kind of neat, if I had one I would play with it a bit, have a good time.. And it's somewhat portable.
"I couldn't give him (Bill Gates) advice in business and he couldn't give me advice in technology." Linus Torvalds
For those of you who are like me and don't have some one to explain Napster is:
An application much like well made hotline where users can trade mp3s or leech of other Mp3 traders while chatting and also includes it's own mp3 audio player (who cares?).. I have used it a little since this morning It's pretty impressive.. for more information vist Napster.com
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This is very neat, but there are some problems, first why is the card not 10/100? I think most people now are running 100Mb networks, or would at least like that feature for future expansion. Second..what is up with that price? The hardware itself can't cost more then $250, a reasonable price would be around $400-500. Charging what they're charging is asking for trouble.
That looks pretty neat, but... I don't see how a 4.3GB HD is supposed to hold 100 CD's worth of music, unless you rely on the CD's being rather not full... It seems like they're off by 2GB or so.
The FM transmitter sounded like a really cool idea, tho.
Okay, so it's a low-powered Linux box, I couldn't find a price, and their ordering page and screenshots were all very dead.
Why not just make a little add-on kit, or a distribution, to turn people's old Linux boxes into dedicated mp3 servers? I've got an old P133 I could use, when I get a new computer I could put my old (newer) HD in there, and serve some mp3's...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
It only has a 4.3 Gb HD? with the option to put in a second HD at 10 Gb? come on. i already have 15 Gb or so of mp3's and i am not done ripping my cd's yet. doesn't seem like it has nearly enough room on it.
"I don't need a compass to tell me which way the wind shines." - Mr. Furious, Mystery Men
topic.
I know that I am a cynic and all that, and I do not want to offend Hemos, but this did seemed to be a bit of a product plug.
Felt a bit wrong, still I could be wrong.
From my U2 "The Best OF 1980-1990" cd:
The copyright... owned by Polygram... WARNING: Unauthorised copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting prohibited
IANAL but I get the strong idea that the FM-feature would be a violation of the copyright. Next to that, the cute JukeBox Sharing feature ofcourse allows unauthorised copying, hiring, lending etc. also a violation.
Remembering the Diamond Rio case, where one of the arguments of the judge, not to prohibit the sale, was that it was not possible to copy from it, I think these guys got a problem. (Yes I know the RIO was hacked) On top of that. What do you think will happen if you happen to turn the Jukebox sharing function on? RIAA will be on your doorstep.
BTW isn't it illegal to be broadcasting without a permit?
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Nice idea. But you will be disappointed. It is ultra-low power. You might get 50 to 100 feet out of it. If you are very lucky. Most of the time you get less. Old wireless microphones used to use FM transmitters. You can pick up a transmitter at RadioShack for $12 that'll do the same thing.
I'm with you on the price, however. For $1,200, the item's list price, you could put mucho very a lot of disk space (and them some) in a box you already own.
InitZero
Considering most of the software on it is free, it's far too expensive for what it does. ($1299 USD, in case the site's been Slashdotted to heck.) Now if it was about 200-300 UKP, then I'd be interested.
Good to see it running Linux though. This could be the first in a hopefully long line of Linux-based (but more important - open protocol) consumer products. There's something incredibly gnarly about being able to access a home music center via HTTP. When you've got a simple web-based interface to an appliance, all those nasty little chores like setting clocks and the like become trivial.
Looks like I'm just going to have to install a home network and hack a spare box to play through a decent audio system...
But yes, very nice anyway.
Well, I doubt Napster has a case, because CuteMX and others are borrowing the same idea. And software patents can patent an algorithm... I don't think they can patent accomplishing something (i.e. filesharing, word processing, mp3 sharing, etc).
:)
The RIAA will probably try to bludgeon these poor folk into submission... the RIAA doesn't have a case; this isn't a recording device at all. But we know the RIAA will just use the threat of a lawsuit to get what they want... extortionist bastards. But since all the software will be GPL'ed, this company could always just sell the hardware and the the software sort of 'subsist' on the net... RIAA can never really win
Thanks to the RIAA's tactics, I refuse to buy CDs from any major label... I'll mp3 them or not listen at all, but the RIAA gets none of my money! Small independent artists and those with their own labels, I'm happy to support.
-- "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." -Joseph Stalin
Linux and BSD Napster client
that can be found here:
http://www.gis.net/~nite/
The whole system sounded really cool, and I even began considering picking one up when they came out, thinking "Well, it can't be more than a few hundred bucks..." Then I saw the price. Where on god's green earth do they get off charging that much money on what is basically old hardware and free software? I figure whoever put this together thought they'd make a killing or something.. more power to them.. but I'd never buy one of those devices for even half that price. Not in a million years. Not to mention the fact that it's running linux, so it'll be core dumping every half hour just for fun.. and can you update it? Install a new kernel? Run maintainence programs?
Why must it run linux?
Why must it cost so much?
I guess I still want one..
This thing may use Sequel Server but it still totally blows a$$ from beyond the grave.
- A.P.
--
"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
and $1300 for the low-end. Roughly on par with another Linux based specially computer, Cobalt's Qube. Here's a link
+&x
The price of this unit is ridiculous. You could get the empeg for less money and have it fit in a car dashboard as well as being removable for anywhere use.
The problem with all these mp3 players and with building your own is quality. Not the quality of the mp3, but the quality of the sound hardware. There are lots of sites on the web that tell how to build your own mp3 player, but if you're using off the shelf components you have no way of knowing what the sound quality is going to be. I replaced my old Soundblaster 16 so I could listen to mp3s, but the new card wasn't any better than the old one.
If someone would put together a list of tested and proven hardware that sounds good it might only be a couple of hundred dollars. Without a list you could waste a bunch of money on components that just don't give decent quality. You never know if a certain motherboard or hard drive or ethernet card or video card is going to interfere and degrade your sound quality.
Oh yeah, shameless site plugs in the comment forum doesn't bother me.
http://www.mp3smuggler.com/. Thanks, Aaron
These guys must be kidding. $1300 for the minimal system? $1800 for the high end? Puhleaze - you could just get another computer to do all this and at less than half the cost too.
Davo -- Free speech, free software, AND free beer.
Ya, I for one was VERY dissapointed. I was expecting to see it, talk to somone about it, etc. But they didn't even have one there (That I saw), they did have their Rio like Mp3 players there. But then how cool are thoes? I mean, 64 MB MAX storage is crap. I need at least 500MB, and have transfering data be easy. By far the best unit I saw at Comdex (And I didn't really get to see much of it, the damn place was TOO big!) was the 4.8 gig portable Mp3 player made by Compaq, I think they are calling it "The Personal Jukebox". It sports 10 hours of Battery life, a nice LCD, and a USB interface, in an $800 package (It's very nice, small, fairly light weight). I talked to a rep for a little more than an hour about the player. They are offering a 2 year warrenty on the player. The rep said that most likely the LCD display would break first, my main concern is the HD. It has a good HD in it, (IBM new mini drive or somthing like that. Don't remember the name from the top of my head) But I would suspect that you drop the thing once or teice from about 3 feet and you would get bad sectors. Not a good thing. They do come with a leather case (I was told that in order for Compaq to agree to put their name on it they HAD to have the case.. Just because of the HD). I think that they may have problems with the device, expecially the HD. I for one think it is a great player, but I don't know about $800 (That is not official, just what I was told). I guess we'll all just have to wait and see. ((Note: They had about 5 "The Personal Jukeboxes" At Comdex, all working and playing music. And hooked up to a computer to show you how their interface worked.))
"I couldn't give him (Bill Gates) advice in business and he couldn't give me advice in technology." Linus Torvalds
Well, actually it is "Under Construction" - and it probably always will be. But it works/plays, and sounds good.
It plays MPEG files (off the HD or CD), and regular audio CD's. It will serve the MPEG files via Apache to any similar box on my LAN. It will also play MPEG files served by Apache from any other box on my LAN. It can be controlled via a client on any machine on my LAN. I'm working on LIRC support, but I only just started, so nothing to show yet.
The OS is Slackware 4.0 and I'll upgrade that as soon as the Slackware 7.0 disks get to me (any day!)
Now all I need is the money to upgrade the HD so I can have all my 40 Gbytes of MPEG files online at once, plus maybe another 20 Gbytes for future additions. And a filesystem that doesn't fall over.
The lower end model is priced at $1300 for what is basically a 266MHz K6-2 w/ 32M and a netcard. This thing is a lot cooler IMO. It's just a deck, but it's only $300, and it plays audio cd's, cdr's and cdrw's with mp3's. And it has a remote.
Right now there are two major mp3 cd players which are "in the making." However, there are doubts about when their actual release date is, and if they will be actually materialize.
As someone else stated, Pine appears to be the most notable project as of now, though it has been delayed for quite a long time, and promises a release around February with a price of $200-300. However, I'm not sure whether it will actually ship by then.
Another option is Mambo X, which claims it will be released around December with a price of $179. It sounds great, but again I remain skeptical, as the site seems more intent on hip advertising than on actually going into detail about the specs of the player.
But basically, though mp3 cd players are the best option for portable mp3 listening, and are supposedly not too hard to make (decoder chip + lcd display?), you wont be seeing much around because of RIAA pressure (theyve sorta settled the other mp3 players, like the rio and the lyra, with their threats because now almost all mp3 players are being made SDMI compliant *shudder*.) Also, Sony, a big cd player manufacturer, won't go near it because they have a record company branch and because they are too busy pushing their minidisc crap. But hopefully this trend won't last, and we'll be able to see the big shot companies come out with quality mp3 cd players that don't just look like vaporware in the making.
Yes but part of a laptop's cost is the display, this system has none.
didn't they say similar things of the first xerox machines?
Who is going to do an open-source napster workalike server? (i.e. after the client comes along)
Hmm, reminds me of shoutcast and icecast.
Enjoy your job, make lots of money, work within the law. Choose any two.
OK, so it's a web front-end that let's you play music through your stereo. Why is that hard? In fact, why is that not easy? Or were you just saying that the previous poster jumped to the conclusion that it's easy before they knew what it is?
I don't get it. It's not easy, it's nearly trivial. It's a $400 computer with apache, perl, a ripper, a player, an ftpd, and a LOT of GLUE. OK, that's some nice glue, but I don't think it's $2000 worth - at least not for me!
Some general thoughts.......
I don't see any reason why it can't be done.
The server would just have to do searches of file lists people have and setup communication, thats about all.
The chat, is not a necessity in my books, if you want to chat about music goto EFnet.
So really thats it for features.
I'm still working on an open source java client, but Ryan is a little further along last I checked and taking the smarter road in using GNOME. I am still worried about legal issues......
What gives me the right to make something and give it away???? I don't think I have a right to do this, but its not against the law.
Leeching the idea is not the same as leeching the work.
To leech the work you would have to steal th source code.
And yes ideas take work, but I am talking elbow greese.
I'm taking it you have never used an ICQ client that wasn't made by Mirablis/AOL?
I'm also taking it that you don't use UNIX/MAC.
I'm also taking it that you've never heard of the Microsoft/AOL ICQ war. No difference in this case.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
ok thats enough flamebait........
What gives you the right to write a client and access napsters servers?
What gives Napster the right to refuse someone access for no better reason than choice of OS?
That is illegal, its the same as microsoft trying to access AOL IM servers.
Actually, it's not illegal. Neither is Microsoft trying to access AIM's servers. The only difference is that Microsoft's intentions are obviously sinister; they seek to Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish AIM. Our friend here has no such intent; he just wants to use their service on his OS of choice.
Its no different than me sitting in front of your house until I figure out your garage door frequency and I open it and start using your garage.
Actually, it's very different. Why? Well, let's take my garage. I prefer to keep it private. I don't want anyone accessing it except me.
Napster is by its very nature a public service. Anyone is, in theory, able to access it. Refusing to allow someone to access because of the OS he chooses to run is not unlike refusing to allow someone into a restaurant due to religious differences.
When don't you start your own service?
I assume you mean why, not when. And frankly, why should he? There's a perfectly good one already out there. Why reinvent the wheel?
When do you have to leech on someone elses work?
Again, I'm going to assume you mean why. The fact is, he isn't leeching. All of the work he's doing is his own. In fact, he's doing more work than the original Napster people did (all they had to do was make up a protocol; he has to figure it out with no documentation to help him). He's not using one single scrap of their code. And thus, none of their work.
Interesting competitor.. based around communities sharing files. Same idea as napster/cutemx but you share files with groups of people (+ all of the interface is on the web).
No linux client yet for sharing :( But you can download files.. 'cause it's all on the web.
Its good to see real products step forward and meet a need in the marketplace. While techies may well be able to put a solution of their own together with some time and patience, I think solutions like this are a big step forward. Lets watch this one really start to happen. Its just a piece of the puzzle as paradigms shift quickly in the music world.
OK, I'm not a lawyer, BUT.......
Could you please explain to me just exactly how having a CD player and some legitimately purchased discs in an office constitutes a copyright violation? I'd really like to know, since it sounds perfectly legal to me.
But like I said, I'm not a lawyer....